Gluten for punishment, indeed

April 12, 2011 6:22 PM

What delicious fillings can I use with gluten-free shortcrust pastry? I'm over the quiche/aka-egg-and-bacon-pie option.

I reluctantly paid a ridiculous price for a pack of frozen g-f shortcrust pastry. I used some of it to make quiches and other egg-based recipes and was very pleasantly surprised at the results. I threw in bacon, random vegetables, different cheeses, whatever I had laying around the kitchen, and surprisingly ate it all because the pastry was so damned good. (My g-f experiments usually get thrown out before they're eaten all up.)

It's hard to get decent readymade g-f pastry, and I reckon it's even harder to make decent g-f pastry at home. I really want to make the most of this expensive purchase.

But I'm sick of eggs. I get free eggs from a farm which supplies free-range eggs laid by organically-fed chooks, and they are spectacularly delicious, but I've been living on them for a couple of years now. I'm really over eggs. And fast becoming sick of bacon too.

Googling only gives recipes for making the pastry. My favourite g-f blogs haven't given me any ideas.

Any suggestions for interesting fillings? (And yes, the traditional Aussie meat pie is the baking experiment today.)

I eat almost everything except for pumpkin and sweet potato. Nothing is off the table... except for gluten, of course.

posted by malibustacey9999 to food & drink (23 answers total)

Whats wrong with tarts? With like fruit and stuff?
posted by Max Power at 6:23 PM on April 12, 2011

Nothing wrong with tarts, Max Power, but my conscience won't let me serve myself dessert as my main meal while my kids are eating meat, vegies, gluten-based sauces, etc at the same table.

Sorry, I should have clarified in the question that I'm looking for savoury options.
posted by malibustacey9999 at 6:30 PM on April 12, 2011

Can you make a pot pie out of it? I've made this a couple of times and it was delicious. You could just skip the topping.

What brand is the pastry? I'm assuming it's an Aussie thing and I can't get it stateside, but just in case...
posted by sugarfish at 6:39 PM on April 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Mincemeat pie?
posted by ian1977 at 6:48 PM on April 12, 2011

This lasagna tart recipe has always looked good to me, though I haven't tried it. It uses ricotta cheese but definitely isn't a traditional quiche.
posted by Meg_Murry at 6:48 PM on April 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

How about empanadas? Savoury Spanish tart filled with pork and peppers. Traditionally two crusted - I use two prepared crusts - one for the top. Try this recipe for filling, ignore their crust
posted by leslies at 6:53 PM on April 12, 2011

This is it, sugarfish. It is Australian, unfortunately, and it's frozen so I can't offer to ship some to you. It's the best readymade g-f pastry I have found.

ian1977, I'm not a fan of sweet stuff generally, so the fruit in mincemeat kinda puts me off. But I'll keep researching recipes in case something appeals to me.

Meg-Murry and leslies, they are pretty much what I'm looking for. Thanx.

I'll stop threadsitting now and go to the supermarket.
posted by malibustacey9999 at 6:56 PM on April 12, 2011

ian1977, I'm not a fan of sweet stuff generally, so the fruit in mincemeat kinda puts me off. But I'll keep researching recipes in case something appeals to me

No excuses!
posted by ian1977 at 7:04 PM on April 12, 2011

How about a fish pie? It's a bit unorthodox, but a bit of smoked fish, peas and cream sauce go really well with a nice crust.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 7:18 PM on April 12, 2011

Tourtière? Salmon pie? Maybe you could bake spanakopita filling (which uses eggs as a binder, but isn't eggy the way a quiche is) in your g-f pastry instead of in phyllo?
posted by Orinda at 7:18 PM on April 12, 2011

A bechamel sauce could be made with rice or tapioca flour, to address the GF aspect. All the other ingredients are inherently GF.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 7:21 PM on April 12, 2011

What if you just filled it with a mixture of Velveeta, ground beef, black olives and Pace picante?
posted by ian1977 at 7:31 PM on April 12, 2011

Chicken pot pie is always delicious, and should be easy to make vegetarian by using some non-wheat flour when making the roux.

If you're still interested in pie crusts once these pre-made ones are used up, I've made this gluten free pie crust for my mother to good reviews.
posted by JiBB at 7:33 PM on April 12, 2011

Rustic Potato and Goat Cheese Tart

1 small red onion, sliced thinly
1/2 pound red-skinned potatoes, very thinly sliced
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
3-4 ounces fresh goat cheese
Fresh ground black pepper and salt to taste
1 tablespoon olive oil

Roll out pastry into a 12 inch circle, roughly fold over half inch edge all around.
Fill center with half the onion, then the potatoes in overlapping circles. Scatter the rest of the onion on top and sprinkle on the rosemary. Crumble the goat cheese on top and drizzle with olive oil. Bake at 350ºF for 40-45 minutes, the crust should be golden brown and the cheese golden. Serve hot or at room temperature. From the cookbook One Potato, Two Potato, by Roy Finamore
posted by blacktshirtandjeans at 8:55 PM on April 12, 2011

Artfully arrange thickly sliced tomatoes in the shell. Scatter olives and capers, add a goodly grind of black pepper. Drizzle with olive oil you've smooshed up with garlic and salt. Add a few ripped blobs of mozzarella. Bake. Garnish with some fresh basil.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 9:18 PM on April 12, 2011

If you can find good tomatoes, this is phenomenal: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B01E4D9173DF931A2575BC0A96F9C8B63

Cornish pasties are also great. I've never made them, but there seem to be a lot of promising recipes on the web.
posted by pompelmo at 11:24 PM on April 12, 2011

i'm going to be the lazy college student who suggests trying out different pizza topping combinations.
posted by joyeuxamelie at 12:16 AM on April 13, 2011

Seconding both Orinda's spanakopita and joyeuxamelie's pizza topping ideas. I had some awesome pasteles on the weekend that were really just a margherita topping wrapped up in light puffy pastry.
posted by Ahab at 1:08 AM on April 13, 2011

Ah, I didn't think of using it as a pizza base. Nice suggestion, joyeauxamelie. And pasteles sound good. And pasties! Why didn't I think of that? (Because I'm lazy and come to Askme instead of thinking, that's why.) And the homegrown tomatoes with olives and capers thing sounds good too.

Lovin' all your suggestions so far.

(The meat pies were a disaster - the pastry was rock-hard and my jaw is aching because I had to bite so hard to get through the crust, the filling was dull and uninteresting and untasty despite it coming from a Womens Weekly g-f cookbook.)

Is there an Australian equivalent of Velveeta, expats?
posted by malibustacey9999 at 1:33 AM on April 13, 2011

One more suggestion is my goat cheese and mushroom tart:

Bottom: 1 lb of goat cheese mixed with one egg, salt, pepper, thyme
Top: 1lb sauteed mushrooms that have been cooked with garlic, shallots, red wine
Sauce: reduce 1.5 cups of balsamic vinegar in a saucepot with thyme and rosemary until it coats the back of a spoon (syrupy)

put the goat cheese mixture on the bottom of the crust, then the mushrooms, bake for 45 min in medium oven, then cut and serve with a drizzle of the sauce
posted by rmless at 7:52 AM on April 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

What if you just filled it with a mixture of Velveeta, ground beef, black olives and Pace picante?
posted by ian1977 at 7:31 PM on April 12 [+] [!]

Is there an Australian equivalent of Velveeta, expats?

In this case, sort of "Mexican" style food, I think you can use shredded cheddar or monterey jack.
The whole thing about Velveeta is the meltiness of it, so any cheese that will melt nicely will work.
posted by CathyG at 8:05 AM on April 13, 2011

+1 chicken pot pie.

You can also use conventional stews, chilis, curries, etc for filling. Use crockpot or another method to create the original dish for day 1. Day 2, thicken any remaining liquids as necessary with corn starch, and use as filling for pie. I would go with lamb curry (with potatoes and peas), leftover chili mixed with cheese, moroccan tagine, any properly seasoned stew (meat or veg).
posted by crazycanuck at 9:26 PM on April 13, 2011

joyeuxamelie, I just made a pizza with my favourite ingredients (salsa on the base, then ham, salami, pineapple, capsicum/aka-red-pepper, red onion, cheese, garlic, and oh joy of joys, anchovies... and it was spec-fuckin'-tactular.

Thank you SO MUCH for the suggestion to use it as a pizza base. I'm still working my way through the other suggestions but, man, it's gunna be hard to top the pizza.
posted by malibustacey9999 at 1:02 AM on April 19, 2011